The most lucrative, looked upon career for most MBA graduates is management consulting. But with the generative AI capabilities the tech giants are building up, management consultants across the globe are worried about losing their jobs to someone not even human.
However, in my opinion, the fear is slightly irrational. The reason a client wants a consultant to look into their business problem is because they want a human to understand the issues they are facing, and give a humanly answer, something made specially for them. Generative AI, despite all its capabilities, is still a tool which gives output based on the input data it has. However, for a human being, that is not the case. We have the ability to steal ideas from secondary research, but ultimately, the output that we provide, will have our usage of creative liberty.
Management consultants can leverage the power of AI to delegate their mundane tasks, and do their research faster. Consultants are known for their power of being decisive and intelligent, and this is something AI lacks. It can give you ten alternative solutions to the problem by analysing the data at hand, however, when it comes to choosing one solution considering the externalities and long-term impacts, AI might not be the most reliable friend.
To conclude, I would like to end by stating that, till the businesses exist, they would require advice, and no matter how much data AI analyses, they would require a human to come to them and explain to them the sense of the vast amount of data. We are far from the time where AI will be the sole decision maker, and robots will replace human judgement. This being said, consultants need to continuously upgrade their skillsets to compete with the technology.
I tried giving a business context to chat GPT to validate my point of view, and wasn’t surprised by the result is generated. The AI tool gave me all possible generic solutions to the problem, and very general recommendations. However, if this same would be given to a consultant, he would create a solution keeping in mind all social and external factors, and along with the solutions, give the client an implantation plan to help them execute the ideas suggested. Thus, Generative AI, for management consultants, is like an advising friend with limited knowledge, but still would like to help.
Thank you for your input. I would argue, however, that AI will definately change the lower ranks of management consulting. For example, as is a known fact, many of the first years at a management consulting company are used to make powerpoints. Maybe not as much as the public oppinion thinks, but still quite a lot. As we have seen an increadibly rapid advancement over the last few years and even months in the space of AI, I would not be suprised if we at some point in the future would have an automatic powerpoint maker. This would change the lives of analysts at many management consulting firms. However, I do agree with you overall stance that AI will not change consulting that much, as the experience needed to write in depth reports is what really drives the value for these firms.
Hi Parag,
Since I work as a working student at a mangement consulting firm, your blog post seemed interesting to me. Here are some points I agree and disagree with. The human touch of consulting work is definitely very hard to replace and I believe that the demand for consulting firms will not evaporate over the coming decennia. I also agree that AI can help with mundane tasks and make consultants more time efficient. However, I think that your argument that AI cannot provide business help of high quality because of the generic output it gave on your prompt is a bit shakey. The prompt you entered is not specific at all and I believe that in the near future, there will be created AI tools which will act as personal assistants to consultants. As the personnel assistant is an AI tool which the consultant uses frequently for his project, it will possibly know a lot of ins and outs about a project and can thus provide high quality and specific answers to questions.
Thank you for your post! In my opinion, like what was mentioned in the previous comment, the lower ranks of management consulting will definitely be affected by AI. However, for a mature advisor, AI should not be viewed as a direct threat but as a tool that can enhance their work. Because AI is good at automating repetitive tasks and processing large amounts of data quickly, it can significantly improve efficiency and provide consultants with more time to focus on strategic thinking and creative problem-solving, which is the core value of consultant work.